Chapter 89 – Shadows of Allegiance

The Covenant knelt before him, heads bowed low. Their voices, once a chorus of zealotry, now murmured as if in prayer.

“To us, you are proof,” their leader whispered. “The one erased from prophecy. The flame hidden in exile.”

Kael’s jaw tightened. Proof? Or pawn?

Aria stood at his side, her grip on her staff white-knuckled. She didn’t kneel. Didn’t bow. Instead, her eyes flicked between Kael and the Covenant with unmasked suspicion.

“Don’t listen,” she hissed. “They worship anyone who bleeds power. Today it’s you. Tomorrow, they’ll burn you if it suits their creed.”

The Covenant leader rose, robes brushing the cavern floor. “We do not worship—we follow. You are the blade fate tried to bury. But even fate forgets.”

His words stirred something dangerous inside Kael. He wanted to believe them—wanted to believe there was a purpose to his erasure beyond betrayal. But Serin’s face still haunted him. The memory of steel sliding into his chest. The void of being unmade.

“Tell me,” Kael said, voice low. “Why Exiled Flame?”

The leader’s lips curled into a smile. “Because you were the first spark—the one meant to burn the false gods. They feared you. So they struck you from history. But you returned, bearing Tsuyoi’s shadow. And shadows do not kneel.”

The cavern trembled, glyphs flickering as if affirming the claim.

But Aria’s voice cut through. “And if this is just another lie?”

The Covenant leader spread his arms wide. “Then let him prove us wrong. Let him burn us, if he wills. We are ready to follow—whether into salvation… or damnation.”

The silence that followed was heavier than any battle.

Kael looked at Aria, then at the kneeling zealots. He felt the weight of their belief, pressing against him like chains.

Not prophecy. Not choice. But belief twisting reality itself.

And for the first time, Kael realized—whether he accepted them or not, the world had already begun to reshape around the name they gave him.

Exiled Flame.

The question was not if he would carry it.

It was if he could survive it.